In years gone by, cult videogame franchises lived and died by the publishers. If your favourite game wasn’t picked up for a sequel, that was the end of that. All you were left with was your precious memories and all that un-spendable income burning a hole in your pocket.
Funnily enough, until recently Road Rash would have been considered one of those games. Throughout the ’90s it saw six major releases (plus a GameBoy Advance release in 2003), but was sadly left to collect dust following the turn of the millennium.
The game was so wildly popular in no small part due to its outrageous content. In an era when videogames still had the power to shock and appall the mainstream media and suburban housewives, Road Rash put gamers into the helmet of a vicious motorcycle gang member, racing cross-country with other malcontents. The cops would chase you, and in turn you would fight them off with an eclectic array of brutal weapons like steel chains and planks of wood. You’d also fight other racers, of course, gleefully flinging their limp bodies from their vehicles with reckless abandon.
Crowdfunding has proven to be Road Rash’s saviour though. Rising from the ashes is Road Redemption, a Steam Greenlight-approved and Kickstarter-backed indie resurrection of the old series.
It looks good, too. This isn’t the first attempt we’ve seen at reviving the series, but it certainly looks an awful lot more convincing than those other false prophets. We even have over a minute-and-a-half of legitimate in-game footage. Cast your eyes to the top of the page, enjoy the carnage, and get very excited for the release of the final version.